A Walk in the Park by Charlotte Barnes

Author:Charlotte Barnes [Barnes, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen: Nell

Of course, I spent the following weeks frolicking through life with the energy of a newborn lamb in springtime. It felt a little like having tumbled into the stories I’d adored so much as a teenager, and hated so much in my early twenties. But it turned out there was a man who could be nice to you without having treated you a bit like shit beforehand — disappearing act aside, owing to very extreme circumstances and all. Do other women know this? I wondered. Should I be telling them? Though, obviously, I was already telling anyone who would listen, which was mostly Nan and Lucia, with the former already starting to roll her eyes at the mention of my flaming romance while the latter made wild bird noises of excitement at the mention of my new love, so between the two of them they were at least keeping me grounded.

Owen and I shared more dates as the days and weeks rolled on, and for something that wasn’t going to be serious, in-at-the-deep-end stuff, it very much felt like that had accidentally happened. Apart from the distant days, that was. They were few and far between, admittedly, but could always be attributed to one thing: Collie. I understood it, because in my own way I was nursing my own quiet grief, while being painfully aware of Daisy’s.

On the day Owen collected Collie’s ashes from the vets, I went as far as shutting the shop two hours early specifically to spend time with my girl. We went home and watched Beethoven on Netflix with a pig’s ear for company. My snack of choice was toffee popcorn, which Daisy looked at with the same grimace I wore on seeing her snack choice. After the film we went for a long walk at the nature reserve before going home via McDonald’s, where I got a large Big Mac meal and the stink-eye from Daisy, who begrudgingly got nothing. I reheated everything in the oven when we got home and I took my burger — and Daisy’s equally delicious (I’m sure) dog food — up to bed with us to watch Beethoven 2.

Owen and I had already agreed not to talk, him having told me well in advance that he’d want the day to himself. So instead it became a girls’ day, and whenever I heard Daisy let out a small and sad whimper, I would hold her especially close until she became too warm with the contact of me and moved away. I couldn’t decide which one of us was benefitting more from those hugs.

Hours after we’d both fallen asleep that night, I woke up surrounded by McDonald’s wrappers with Marley & Me playing in the background. One of us must have rolled over the controls. Daisy was fast asleep on her side of the bed — see, baby girl, it’ll never be Owen’s side — and after I’d watched the slow rise and fall of her sleep-time breathing for nearly a full minute, I took myself into the bathroom for a quiet cry.

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